Liu Zhenqing swore that he really didn’t fall in Huo Fenglie’s direction on purpose. This was a trick of fate, ah! But no one around believed this. Thinking it was naked seduction, they looked at him with disdain from all directions.

Just as he was about to pounce on this person, a cold black object suddenly stood in front of him. Liu Zhenqing instinctively grabbed it to stabilize his body. It felt chilly to the touch, but very familiar. When he lowered his head and looked closely, he saw that it turned out to be a sword.

It was Huo Fenglie’s Chunjun sword. Seeing Liu Zhenqing about to pounce on him, he had used the scabbard to catch him at the last moment. He lifted it up, forcing Liu Zhenqing to stand on his own, and then withdrew the sword and left without looking back.

Liu Zhenqing froze on the spot, feeling that the sword looked familiar.

When he returned to his spot, he was faced with the mournful and furious looks of his two cousins. Liu Zhenqing couldn’t be bothered to talk nonsense with them, and his mind had already shifted to Huo Fenglie…..in the direction he was going stood the man in scholarly white who had just spoken up for him. He was about the same age and appearance as Liu Zhenqing was now, with good looks, a pleasant temperament, and a bookish air.

Logically speaking, most children of this age would not have known Liu Zhenqing, and even if they had known him before, they wouldn’t recognize him as he was now. After all, there were only a few children who knew him well. But the person in front of him looked familiar, although he couldn’t recall him for the moment.

“Hey, do you know who the young man in white sitting with General Huo is?”

The two cousins looked at Liu Zhenqing with immediate disdain, and the Third Cousin was furious: “Can’t you just calm down, ah! Is this the time for jealousy?”

“He just dared to speak up for me, much more reliable than my two cousins. Can’t I be curious?” Liu Zhenqing said with a raised eyebrow.

The two of them choked up at once. The Second Cousin said: “That’s one of General Huo’s good brothers. I’m telling you, you can mess with others, but don’t get too close to this person!”

“Why not?” Liu Zhenqing was puzzled.

The Second Cousin said coldly: “His name is Bai Su, courtesy name Yuzhou.”

Surname Bai…..could it be…..

In a few words, he found out that Bai Su was not only the son of the Grand Tutor, but was the number one scholar the previous year. However, he had not become an official.

Liu Zhenqing’s expression remained unchanged, but his heart skipped a beat. “Does Young Master Bai have an older brother?”

“You know?” The Third Cousin said in surprise.

Sure enough. He wondered if that person was well. Judging from the reactions of these two people, could it be that he was implicated and convicted because of him?

The Second Cousin admonished: “Hmph, it’s good that you know. “He did have an older brother, eight years older, named Bai Yu. But he’s been dead for nearly eight years.”

Liu Zhenqing’s pupils trembled. Eight years. Could it be that after his death…..

“He was the former right hand man of Liu Zhenqing, the traitorous prime minister. When Liu Zhenqing died, he was still working for him in the south. His Majesty started to collect criminal evidence and attack his cronies, and he originally wanted to make up for his mistakes with merit, but he was brutally tortured by Liu Zhenqing’s soldiers and burned alive on the river boat returning to the capital, leaving only his charred corpse to be buried.”

Liu Zhenqing’s heart trembled, and the color in his face gradually receded.

“So he is a victim, ah, and will definitely take his anger out on our family. Don’t bring trouble onto yourself.”

Liu Zhenqing’s chest felt a little tight. What his two cousins said was incorrect. If he was really angry with them, would he have helped him just now?

Viewing Bai Su from a distance, he was a gentle scholar with a pure, kind heart. Just like Er-gou, he hated him but would not blame the Liu family of the same clan.

Liu Zhenqing couldn’t think of anything to say. Although he didn’t know how Bai Yu died, it was reasonable to say that it was because of him.

He didn’t expect that the person at his side would not have a good ending, and also didn’t know how the other one was doing nowadays.

This new information made Liu Zhenqing a little melancholy. Sure enough, he shouldn’t ask about the past. Since he had already died once, he should forget them all and stay far away. Apparently he still had to…..Liu Zhenqing’s gaze finally moved to Huo Fenglie.

. . . . . . .

“Cousin…..” Rong Shiming anxiously stepped forward to seek out the First Princess. Because of the previous incident in the gambling house, he knew that as long as Huo Fenglie was around, it would be difficult to punish Liu Zhenqing.

The First Princess waved her hand to signal him to be patient. Unless he had forgotten how his brother died, she didn’t actually believe that Huo Fenglie would do his utmost for the Liu family. This was just his way of returning a favor. 

If he had forgotten, then she would just remind him! It would be much easier to take action then.

. . . . . . .

With a bang, the Chunjun sword was placed on the table. Bai Su smiled at the sound. He was indeed a little angry. Seeing how he was showing some protectiveness just now, he had thought he was still indifferent, and that nothing could cause turmoil in his heart. After so many years, it was rare to meet someone who could make Huo Fenglie a bit more temperamental.

“If you’re angry, just ignore him,” Bai Su teased, pouring tea for Huo Fenglie.

Huo Fenglie shook his head with a slight frown and said, “I’m not.”

Bai Su saw Huo Fenglie’s expression gradually smooth out and said in surprise: “You were only unhappy for a moment. If others had rumors like this spread about them, they would be angry.”

But Huo Fenglie really didn’t care anymore. There were so few things in the world that could cause his mood to change. After all, his body wouldn’t allow it, and he had seen such things before, so it wasn’t surprising.

Huo Fenglie’s expression was difficult to decipher for a moment. In the past, that man and his sister-in-law had played tricks on his elder brother together. Compared to that, today’s trick for self-protection was really nothing.

“I heard that he even ate your fish?” Bai Su poked fun at the interesting fact he had heard.

Huo Fenglie’s eyebrows twitched. He grabbed the teacup, and the liquid inside it shook.

Seeing that Huo Fenglie seemed to have something on his mind, Bai Su said: “You never attend such parties, so why stay? Is it because of Liu Xiaozhu?” It should be known that his good brother would rather sit in a daze under the tree at the manor than join in the fun. “Because you want to protect the last bloodline of the Liu family?”

Huo Fenglie lowered his head in thought and didn’t answer.

“It’s okay, just do what you want.”

“That’s not it,” Huo Fenglie said suddenly.

Bai Su was taken aback. “What?”

He didn’t want to protect the Liu family bloodline? Truly, he was not such a sentimental person. “Then why? His kindness to the twins?”

Huo Fenglie didn’t answer. It was clearly more than that.

Bai Su slowly sipped his tea. “I’ve felt it was strange from the beginning. Why did the Emperor apprehend the Eighth Princess for no reason? Isn’t this giving the First Princess no face? And even if someone was sent to apprehend the Eighth Princess, you wouldn’t be asked to come in person. Could it be that you knew he was going to run into trouble? You came here specially to help?”

Bai Su was very intelligent, and caught onto many clues at once.

Huo Fenglie hid nothing, saying directly: “The Emperor has just issued a mandate for the Jinyiwei and Dongchang to secretly investigate the Imperial Examinations. It is suspected that Qiming Academy and others are helping the candidates to cheat.”

Bai Su’s eyes instantly widened, and he couldn’t help but glance from Rong Shiming to the First Princess. 

“He Lan, Qin Yu, and I were both there at the time. The Emperor’s prejudgment of fraud is unprecedented, but…..” Huo Fenglie’s eyes darkened as he looked down at the teacup in his hand, watching the liquid inside fluctuate due to his unnatural leakage of internal energy. “But we had heard about it long before.”

Bai Su looked at Huo Fenglie in surprise.

“It was Liu Xiaozhu. He had just heard about the academy model created by Rong Shiming and made the same conjecture as His Majesty. The Emperor only started to become suspicious after a long investigation.”

Bai Su was surprised: “I couldn’t tell that he was so clever. I understand, you think he’s a talent, so you don’t want anything to happen to him.”

Huo Fenglie didn’t answer.

The Emperor was very intelligent, which was why he could control the affairs of the court at such a young age. There were many things that most people didn’t realize, but that the Emperor thought of first. He was extremely sensitive to potential crises, which stemmed from the teachings of a single man. There were few people in the world who were better than the Emperor in this regard.

…..Very few.

Huo Fenglie’s drooping eyelashes cast a shadow, and his increasingly abnormal eyes were faintly reflected in the shaking tea. Others wouldn’t notice, but Bai Su could see it clearly.

Bai Su was shocked. Huo Fenglie’s eyes were very strange at this time, just like when he went to the desert with the Huo army a few years ago and tried to draw the eyes of a lost person they met by chance when he went to draw the solitary desert vapor.

It was a hopeless endeavor. When the man saw that group of people, he knew that it was most likely a mirage, but couldn’t help but rush forward to find out. Even though he stumbled on the way and felt helpless, he didn’t dare stop, just because of the glimmer of hope hidden in the illusion.

But how was it possible? How could that kind of look appear on Huo Fenglie’s face? When Bai Su blinked and looked over, it seemed as if he had been mistaken again.

“Zhanyuan?” Bai Su sensed something strange.

“Do you believe that there is another world?” Huo Fenglie suddenly spoke in a deep voice.

Bai Su was astonished, and wondered how he could ask such a strange question. “The world after death?”

“There was once a man who was seriously injured. He had a fever and went into a coma. In order to comfort a crying child, he told the child a secret, saying that he would not die and that he was from another world. He came here after dying in that world, so if he died here, he would be resurrected.”

Huo Fenglie spoke in a tone so moderate that there were no fluctuations in his voice. However, his deep, dark eyes suddenly rose, and a dangerously sharp gaze shot into the distance through the gauze tent in front of the seat, firmly locked on one person.

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Chapter Nineteen << Table of Contents >> Chapter Twenty-One